Start with gao zha and a Sanxing scallion pancake, both at Luodong Night Market, and you've already eaten the two things Yilan does that nowhere else does. The rest of the list makes sense once you know the place: a wet, cool plain between the mountains and the sea, so thick, warming soups, rice noodles, duck preserved for the New Year, and fruit candied to keep. Almost all of it is cheap.
Sanxing scallion pancakes (三星蔥油餅)
If you eat one thing in Yilan, make it this. Sanxing (三星), up the Lanyang River, is Yilan's scallion country. The scallions grow all year and are ready about three months after planting, with a long white stem of around 20 cm, and that sweet white stem is what you taste in the pancake. Hot summers cut the crop by 10 to 20 percent.
Where to try: Qi Qiao Wei (七巧味三星蔥多餅) on Gongyuan Road at Luodong Night Market rolls them by hand with Sanxing scallions and minced pork, from 16:30 (17:00 on Friday and Saturday) to 21:00, as reported in November 2025.
Gao zha (糕渣)
Yilan's way of turning soup into a snack, and the one dish that surprises people. Rich chicken stock is thickened with starch, set in the fridge, cut into cubes, dusted and deep-fried, so it's crisp outside and soft and very hot inside. It started as a New Year banquet dish. Add white pepper, and eat it slowly: bite in too fast and you'll burn your mouth.
Where to try: Xiao Chun (小春糕渣卜肉), No. 100, Gongyuan Road, Luodong Night Market, 16:00 to 23:00, to midnight on Friday and Saturday. Order both things they fry: the gao zha and bu rou (卜肉), battered strips of pork, Yilan's other fried snack.
Xi lu rou (西魯肉)
Don't let the name fool you: it's not braised pork at all. "Xi" means shreds in Taiwanese, and "lu" is the starch that thickens it. What you get is a thick soup of napa cabbage, mushrooms, carrot, pork, shrimp and squid, finished with black vinegar and topped with fried egg flakes. It's a banquet and family-meal dish, so look for it at Yilan restaurants, not at stalls.
Smoked duck (鴨賞)
Salted duck, spread flat and smoked over sugarcane, which sweetens and preserves it. It goes back to Xiafu (下福) around 1941, when it was a homemade treat for Lunar New Year. Producers there still make it today, and one still smokes over charcoal and sugarcane the old way. Locals slice it thin and eat it cold with rice. It's sold vacuum-packed in markets including Luodong's, which makes it an easy one to take home.
Rice noodles
- Thick rice noodle soup (米粉羹): coarse Yilan rice noodles in a thickened broth of shiitake and small dried fish. Go to A Mao (阿茂米粉羹) on Shenghou Street in Yilan City, by Dongmen Night Market.
- Fish ball rice noodles (魚丸米粉): a Yuanshan (員山) specialty, made with fish paste from Nanfang'ao. More than ten shops share one street, so you can just walk in to whichever has a seat.
- Savory mi tai mu (鹹米苔目): thick rice noodles in a pork bone broth. It's breakfast near Luodong's Zhongshan Park, so if you stay in Luodong, eat it the morning after the night market. → Where to eat it in Luodong
Yilan ox-tongue pastry (牛舌餅)
The gift to take home. Yilan's version is long, narrow and very thin, with no filling: crisp, and closer to a cracker than the wider, softer, malt-filled pastry from Lukang. One thing that confuses people: "Yilan Bing" (宜蘭餅), the extra-thin version, is one company's name, not a general term. Its showroom is the Yilan Cake Invention Museum (宜蘭餅發明館) in Su'ao, open daily 08:30 to 18:00, where you can book a class to make your own. It's about a 14-minute walk from Su'ao New Station. → Su'ao
Kumquats (金棗)
Nearly every kumquat in Taiwan comes from Yilan: about 96 percent in 2004, and about 80 percent of Yilan's from the hills of Jiaoxi. The fruit is tart, so most of it is candied. Look for candied kumquats, kumquat cake and kumquat jelly drinks.
- Orange Square (橘之鄉蜜餞形象館), No. 33, Meizhou 2nd Road, Yilan City: a candied fruit factory where you can see each step of the making, with a café and a kumquat DIY class (small groups just turn up; groups of 10 or more book ahead). Entry is free, 08:30 to 17:30 daily. Good with kids.
- Linmei Kumquat Culture Museum (林美金棗文化館), in the kumquat village of Linmei, Jiaoxi: tastings downstairs, exhibits upstairs. Entry is free, 08:00 to 17:30, closed on the first day of Lunar New Year.
- Lao Zeng Shou (老增壽蜜餞舖), a traditional preserved-fruit and souvenir shop in Yilan City, began in 1861 as a medicine shop making kumquat paste for coughs, which makes it Yilan's earliest kumquat processor. We couldn't confirm its opening hours, so check before you go. → Yilan City
Nanfang'ao seafood and mackerel
Nanfang'ao (南方澳), in Su'ao, is one of Taiwan's three big fishing harbors and its largest mackerel port, and the place to go for seafood. The fishermen's association runs the Nanfang'ao Sanyu Fish Market (南方澳三魚市場), the harbor's main retail fish market, with 32 stalls selling fresh fish such as swordfish, wahoo and mackerel (as reported in 2024). For a sit-down meal, the seafood restaurants line the road by the Third Harbor. → Su'ao and Nanfang'ao
Su'ao yokan and marble soda
Su'ao's cold spring water is the town's pride, and the town credits it for Su'ao's yokan (羊羹, a firm sweet bean jelly) and its marble soda. Buy both after a dip in the cold spring. → Su'ao Cold Spring
Hot spring vegetables
Only in Jiaoxi: some crops here are irrigated with hot spring water. Look for hot spring water spinach (March to November), water bamboo (September to November) and tomatoes (January to April). The farmers' association's Tang Lian Products Hall (湯戀物產館), No. 175-1, Section 1, Zhongshan Road, Jiaoxi, sells them with hot spring rice and rice noodles.
Good to know: Yilan isn't in the MICHELIN Guide, which covers Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Hsinchu. The good food here is in small family shops and night market stalls, and their hours change, so check the Google Maps listing on the day.
→ Food in Yilan · Night markets · Luodong
Sources: CNA on Sanxing scallions; UDN on Luodong Night Market (November 2025); UDN on Luodong Night Market (September 2025); UDN on gao zha and xi lu rou; Lanyang Museum on smoked duck; Lanyang Museum on rice and noodle food; Lanyang Museum on kumquats; Liberty Times on ox-tongue pastry; Liberty Times on "Yilan Bing"; Yilan Cake Invention Museum, official site; Yilan County tourism, Orange Square; Jiaoxi Township, Linmei Kumquat Culture Museum; Jiaoxi Township, local produce; Jiaoxi Township, Tang Lian Products Hall; Liberty Times on the Sanyu Fish Market; Taiwan Tourism Administration, Nanfang'ao; Su'ao Township, festivals and the cold spring; MICHELIN Guide Taiwan. Checked November 2026.